Joe Carollo loses. Jury orders he pay Little Havana business owners $65 million
Joe Carollo must pay for a political retaliation campaign targeting two Little Havana business owners, a jurors decided on Wednesday — and pay a lot.
After just a few hours of deliberation, a Broward County jury slammed the Miami city commissioner, deciding he should pay $63.5 million in compensation to business owners William Fuller and Martin Pinilla, whose properties include the popular Ball & Chain nightclub on Miami’s Calle Ocho.
“It’s about time the corruption was called out,” an emotional Fuller said outside the Broward County courtroom after the jury’s decision was delivered in the multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit he and Pinilla filed against Carollo, who they argued had directed code enforcers and other city staffers to harass their businesses after they backed a political opponent in an election.
The jury awarded $8.6 million in damages and another $25.7 million in punitive damages to Fuller. It awarded $7.3 million in damage to Pinilla, along with another $21.9 million in punitive damages.
Carollo did not react when the verdict was read and stayed in the courtroom afterwards. Attorneys on both sides refused to comment, citing a standing order from the federal judge in the civil lawsuit not to discuss the case with the media.
The decision came after weeks of testimony by almost two dozen witnesses who described Carollo as a heavy-handed politician willing to “weaponize” government resources to destroy perceived political opponents,.
This is a breaking news story that will be updated.
